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To Austinites, it is no secret that many residents are busy spending their time making the city and the world a better place but now, Austin is showing the rest of the country as well. Forbes' 30 Under 30 Class of 2021, which was released this week, features six Austinites who've made an impact in their respective industries, all under 30 years old.
Of the 600 total individuals on the list, from innovators to athletes to musicians, Austin has it all—just take it from these guys.
Alex Le Roux, 28
Humbled to be included in #ForbesUnder30 class of 2021!Feeling lucky to be inspired & challenged every day. Gratefu… https://t.co/mrqDa4hKtZ— Alexander Le Roux (@Alexander Le Roux)1606886679.0
A Baylor University graduate and Austin resident, Alex Le Roux is changing the landscape of home building as we know it. Le Roux created the Vulcan, a 12-foot-tall 3D printer that can build houses entirely out of concrete in less than 24 hours for up to 30% cheaper. So far, Austin is home to 16 houses made by Le Roux's startup, Icon, which he founded alongside Evan Loomis and Jason Ballard, both over 30. Now, Icon is creating the first 3D-printed community for low income families in Mexico, has a contract to 3D-print barracks for the Department of Defense and is working with NASA to build structures on the moon.
Amobi Okugo, 29
Amobi Okugo may play defense for Austin Bold FC in his day job but aside from working on the field, he is working behind it. Born in California to Nigerian parents, Okugo has lived all over the country and now hangs his hat in Austin. Okugo founded A Frugal Athlete, a financial literacy company designed to help educate professional athletes on how to handle and maximize their profits, and runs the Ok U Go Foundation, which helps disadvantaged children discover their passions and become more active in their communities.
Conan Gray, 21
We felt like today was when we needed to relive when @ConanGray played #Heather during his Celebrity Session on… https://t.co/1rw4e1sqku— SiriusXM Hits 1 (@SiriusXM Hits 1)1605139898.0
Hailing from Georgetown, Conan Gray started making music via YouTube when he was just 12 years old. Though Gray lives in Los Angeles now, he spent his "rough" childhood moving around the U.S., eventually settling in Texas, where he became inspired to write music. Gray has been praised by music legends like Taylor Swift and Elton John for his musical prowess, named an up-and-coming artist by MTV, YouTube and Apple; and sold out tours all over the world. Gray is best known for the tracks "Maniac" and "Heather" off his first full-length album "Kid Krow," which was released this year.
Graham Gaylor, 29
Self-proclaimed wearer-of-many-hats, Graham Gaylor co-founded VRChat, a virtual world-builder turned social network for its 9 million users to congregate in, in 2015. With over 20,000 users at any given time, VRChat users have created over 25,000 worlds and numbers are growing every day. Some people even use the platform to create skit-based narrative content on YouTube and Twitch. VRChat is taking off and has raised $20 million from backers like Rothenberg Ventures, GFR Fund and more.
Renji Bijoy, 29
🎉It's such an honor and a privilege to be elected as this year's @forbes 30 Under 30! 🔥🚀 So grateful for the innova… https://t.co/SQprd6j80f— Renji Bijoy 🚀 (@Renji Bijoy 🚀)1606831633.0
Renji Bijoy, on the other hand, is providing a different use for VR. Bijoy founded Immersed, a company that partnered with Facebook to build VR office and productivity spaces with the tagline "be remote together" just in the nick of time for COVID-19. With $35 million in venture backing, the former Techstars company is bringing the office to you in a safe, yet familiar, way.
Skler Mapes, 28
Skyler Mapes' Italian husband grew up on an olive tree orchard, so when he couldn't have his Calabrian olive oil to cook with in Texas, it was a disappointment. The couple set out to rectify that issue by moving to Italy, harvest, mill, bottle, produce and export their own olive oil: EXAU olive oil. Now, you can get Italian olive oil in Austin—if you're fast enough—because there is a waitlist. EXAU's oil has been featured on the Food Network, Taste, TMZ and named one of Oprah's Favorite Things.
Austin is making a name for itself, special thanks to the movers and shakers of today.
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Popular
Radhia Gleis bore the tales of Buddhafield life in her book, "The Followers," and the documentary, "Holy Hell." (Holy Hell)
Although it was Buddhafield, a movement that has been called a cult by a host of ex-followers, that brought Gleis to the Hill Country, the group's Austin presence has diminished to almost nothing. After over two decades in the group, Gleis revealed it all in her first-place PenCraft award-winning book, "The Followers, 'Holy Hell' and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders" in which she talks about the dangers of groupthink and the impact that spending years in the Buddhafield cult had on her.
Gleis now works as a clinical nutritionist and is working on healing through her art. (radiagleis.com)
From a "well-to-do" family in California, Gleis was learning how to make cocktails for wealthy dinner guests shortly after she learned how to walk. She grew up emotionally distant from her parents and only brother; Gleis vividly remembered being called "dopey" by her father, consistently forgotten by her mother and held at knifepoint by her brother.
Needless to say, Gleis grew up without secure connections. On top of that, she grew up in the 1960s and '70s during mass cultural upheaval, the free love movement and obsession with Eastern religions.
"There were these desires to expand your thinking, expand your consciousness as opposed to the 'Leave it to Beaver' kind of paradigm," Gleis told Austonia. "There was a rebellion, a schism in the culture."
She had become interested in the idea of nirvana when she was in high school, so when a friend told her about spirituality sessions with a beautiful woman named Malila who claimed to have experienced God directly, her interest was piqued.
Her experiences with Malila threw her into the spiritual realm. Gleis met Jaime Gomez, the would-be leader of the Buddhafield cult who went by many names, in the early 1980s through a friend of Malila's in California. Gomez, a native of Venezuela, was known to often wear only eyeliner and a speedo in his prime and when Gleis met him, he was clad only in a golden tan, skin-tight jeans and a small vest.
The Shakti scam
Gomez originally began guiding members through an independent spiritual journey but flags were raised when he began to see himself as a godlike figure. (WRA Productions LLC)
Her initiation was subtle—it started as just a group of friends who followed Gomez, a young yogi with a small but growing following, to learn techniques of "The Knowing" that he possessed. Members were initiated via "shakti," a godly transfer of power that opened your third eye. Members would "pranam," or deeply bow to show respect, to God during the first four years of Gleis' time with Gomez.
The initiation started as a relationship between the individual and their "divine birthright" through God.
"Generations were trying to get Shakti from him, they were trying to get his energy," Gleis said. "He was like, 'Whatever you experience in your initiation is between you and God, it has nothing to do with me.'"
Things started to change at the next initiation when Gomez had new members pranam to him and connect to his love, not the divine love they had come seeking.
"He would say, 'Well, Radhia, some people, not you, need a living person they can touch and see and talk to, I am just being that for them,'" Gleis said. "So he considered himself now a living deity like Jesus or Krishna or Buddha."
Although she did not support the pranam to Gomez, the shift was harrowing. While Gomez was a "skilled sociopath," Gleis said, he was also her friend and she was his close adviser; he knew all of her' hopes, dreams, fears and how to keep her around.
"If you go to Disneyland, it's a fantasy, but you're willing to forgo your disbelief for the fun, for the ride," Gleis said. "But what if you don't know it's fake? What if all your friends and all your family are in on it? And the one person that you revere the most is creating the illusion?"
It would take years for Gleis to learn Gomez was secretly taking advantage of members in the group.
The domino effect
The Buddhafield waltzed into Austin from West Hollywood in the late '90s after accusations against Gomez came out, Gleis would later learn. She found out that later that multiple members alleged that Gomez sexually abused them, and it was a pattern of his to jump ship and change his name once people started speaking out.
There were a few reasons the group chose Austin: their new home had to be in a warm climate, near a body of water, full of rich culture and jobs.
Having been in the cult for over a decade, the Austin move had triggered a need to build a life outside Buddhafield for Gleis. The connections she made outside the "family" she had made for herself led her to visit the home of an injured member of Buddhafield, where she says she was greeted by two men who told her tales of Gomez's transgressions.
Tales of Gomez attempting to hypnotize male members of the group into removing their clothes, which Gomez would deny, and his penchant for using the AIDS crisis to scare members into silence came to light. It was a feat in and of itself to tell a single soul about the things the victims had experienced, let alone make formal charges.
Among the victims was Will Allen, who released the documentary "Holy Hell," made from hours of his own original footage, in 2016 to detail his experiences.
The women in the group were untouched to Gleis' knowledge and some of the victims took years to gain the courage to speak out.
"Now it was like dominoes, it was like this was our #MeToo movement. When this guy came out, now all of a sudden, I'm getting phone calls because the rumors spread," Gleis said. "It was very heartbreaking—I started hearing all these stories of what (Gomez) had done and all the secrets that all of these men had been holding, these traumas that they had been holding in for years."
That was her line in the sand—so, at 55 years old, Gleis left Buddhafield, "alone and forsaken." And she has learned a good deal about herself since then—she works as a clinical nutritionist but left all of her friends behind, with no one to fall on but herself.
It has been 15 years since her departure—15 years to ponder how she was manipulated into that place. Gleis often compares those two decades of her life to Trumpism, where Gomez had tapped into her preconceived notions and led her to believe what she wanted to believe.
As someone who grew up not knowing love, it made sense to jump headfirst into the sense of community and protection that Buddhafield offered.
"We have to be careful when we use words like 'brainwashed.' We went willingly. Jaime didn't torture us. He didn't brainwash us," Gleis said. "All he did as a narcissist—he figured out what we were all thinking about and he became that for us. When you pranam to him, which we did, then he becomes bolder. That's what a sociopath does."
Gleis details her story of what led her in and out of Buddhafield in her book, "The Followers." Gomez and certain members who are still connected to Buddhafield have moved on to Hawai'i, but Gleis remains in Austin and is currently working on a children's novella.
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